Hello FMers,

I was able to witness and capture the flying and diving for fish from this small, active white heron, the Snowy Egret. I have seen egrets usually feed while standing on shallow water or by an edge of the water but NOT flying and diving for fish in deep water like this. I was more amazed by his/her quick and sudden stop and turn during low level flying to catch a fish.

Now, since I don't know exactly what constitute a "Holy Grail" shot, etc.... I'll just let you FMers decide. Please give me some C&C if you can, especially if you don't think so. Frankly, it isn't about it being the HG or not....but just want to share my experience and maybe have a little fun. These were taken yesterday at Moss Landing just shortly before sunset. All Exifs are intact. Thank you so very much.

Dan

P.S. Mr. ZOOM and JB, get ready to hand over the official decoder ring


DISCLAIMER: I am in no way of trying to win any award or popular contest w/ this post or any of my posts. Believe me, I am no where as good as most of you who posted here. Good or bad results...HG or not, I hope to get some feedbacks to learn/improve and have a little fun along w/ it.



1. A typical Egret flying

2. This is where the action begins...spotting his fish. From 2-6, they are the actual frame to frame sequence.

3. The dive for the fish.

4. The catch...

5. - 6. And the fly away with its food.

The rest of this set is to show the another missed attempt to come up with a fish. I also want to show the quick and sudden spot and turn of the egret to dive for the fish. I was panning/tracking as I shot and got some clipped wings because of that sudden turn by the egret. All actions here are mostly within less than 1 second from frame to frame. I think the actions speak for themselves.

EDIT: Added 100% crop to show there is an actual small/tiny fish caught in #13. Thanks Socrate for pointing that out.

7 - 9. From 7 to 14, they are the actual frame to frame sequence.

10 - 12

13 - 14.


Added 100% crop for #13 to show there is an actual small/tiny fish caught. Thanks Socrate for pointing that out.

Great captures, Dan. Not sure which one but this series id definitely worth some kind of Holy. I voted for Holy Grail
Socrate

I would say you got a "Snowy Egret" Holy grail for sure Awesome series!! Beautiful! Sensational and Wow!
Larry

Shasoc wrote:
Great captures, Dan. Not sure which one but this series id definitely worth some kind of Holy. I voted for Holy Grail
Socrate


Thank you Master S.
Dan

BearCreekLar wrote:
I would say you got a "Snowy Egret" Holy grail for sure Awesome series!! Beautiful! Sensational and Wow!
Larry

Thank you very much Larry. I changed the title to be more specific for "Snowy Egret". Thanks again.
Dan

What a fabulous serie Dan!

Nicely done Dan, #4

Rob

danjacquitaylo wrote:
The rest of this set is to show the another missed attempt to come up with a fish.

7 - 9.


Dan, if you look closer at # 13 I believe it did catch a little one
Look at the original shot and you can see that better.
Socrate

Hi Dan, great sequence. I consider it a Holy Grail and I voted. I've seen this behavior before from a snowy egret in Pacific coastal Mexico, namely in Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo. The egrets had to fish on the wing as there were crocodiles in the water. There were yellow crowned and snowy egrets fishing nearby the crocs in this fashion. I'll have to dig up some shots from last year.
Herb

Fantastic series, Danno! The focus and whites are spot-on. I would say Holy Grail but then you would have nothing more to live for...so for your sake, I vote for 99.9% HG!

Great sequence, I love this behavior with the snowies
4 and 6 are my picks.

Tim

Awesome sequence, Dean, but decoder rings are reserved for Osprey Grails only.

Nice try though

Zm

Boy that Mr. Zm guy sure is a stickler for details... gotta be an Osprey, gotta be Canon gear, yada yada yada...

In addition to the Harrier HG club you could start one for Snowy's too Danno.



Excellent sequence here my friend... #4 is awesome and 13-14 are really beautiful.
Nice work buddy... keep trying Danno, you're Holy Grail will come.

Kirk

Awesome action series, very well done....

Real sweet set Dan! I voted for you, I think it qualifies. But if it does so did this that I posted a little while ago. This guy dove out of the air to get the fish. I have also seen greenies doing the same thing.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/826390/

Tim

Due to the rarity of this event, I deemed it a holy grail, but really there should have been a "mini" grail category Danno this was an excellent series, well done and very sharp and I hope to catch something like it someday!